Various methods are currently available to recover water of reduced salinity from seawater and brackish water, such as vapor-compression distillation, flash distillation, electrolysis, and reverse osmosis. Reverse osmosis employing a semipermeable membrane has the advantage over other methods of requiring a lower energy input per 1,000 gallons of desalted water recovered. However, the energy input is still a significant cost factor and facilities must be provided to pump the high salinity water to high pressure (pressure in excess of the osmotic pressure of the more concentrated saline water leaving the system) and to contain and support the semipermeable membrane at high pressure. For example, the energy input for recovering desalted water from brackish water (10,000 ppm dissolved salt content) has been calculated to be about 20 KWH/1,000 gallons. The corresponding input for seawater (35,0000 ppm dissolved salt content) would be over 40 KWH/1,000 gallons with the possibility of reducing this value to about 25 KWh/1,000 gallons if a power recovery turbine were installed in the concentrated waste water stream. It would be desirable to find a less capital and energy intensive method for recovering desalted water. The present invention is such a process.